


Movie Night at 221B

by solrosan



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Movie Night, Popcorn War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 22:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/892734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solrosan/pseuds/solrosan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Movie nights at 221B always started the same way.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Movie Night at 221B

**Author's Note:**

> Slowly moving some old fics from LJ to AO3.

Movie nights at 221b Baker Street always started the same way.

John picked a film he didn’t want to see because he knew Sherlock would never accept his first suggestion (no matter what it was). Then Sherlock suggested a documentary in a minor European language – not always with subtitles. John had no idea why he did this because to his knowledge Sherlock only spoke English, French and some German. Watching a Finnish documentary about Linda Brava or a program about the situation between Bosniaks and Croatians in Mostar, Serbian, wasn’t John’s idea of a fun Friday evening.

It probably wasn’t Sherlock’s idea of a fun night either, but when the outside world was free from mysteries and Molly had locked everything up at Bart’s the telly became bearable. 

This particular evening started with _You Got Mail_ (John never even bothered with the first one anymore), Sherlock countered with something John couldn’t even pronounce, but according to IMDB it dealt with the EMU from an Estonian point of view. John stated that it was very Mycrofty of Sherlock to pick this as Friday entertainment, earning him the glare of death. That didn’t result in anything else than a second round of suggestions. 

An action vs. Something about the riots in Paris 2005.

A based-on-a-true-story vs. “Why not just watch the true story then?”

A crime movie vs. “Don’t we have enough of stupid cops in our lives?”

A comedy vs. A two hours study of Baltic sea in Polish.

John wasn’t sure but he thought that, to Sherlock, the arguing about what to watch was more entertaining than the actual watching. John also thought this was why he always got the last word. Sure, it rarely ended with something John would have picked on his own, but he almost always enjoyed the result.

Tonight they settled on _Let the right one in_ , the Swedish one and not the American remake. It was one of the rare times when they actually managed to compromise: a movie John had been planning to watch for some time and they would need subtitles to get through it – which seemed to be Sherlock’s only criteria for picking movies.

While Sherlock downloaded the movie – “Don’t worry, at one point I actually thought Mycroft was running The Pirate Bay. You wouldn’t believe what he has on his hard drive.” – and made sure the subtitles were synced, John made popcorn in the recently disinfected microwave. 

“All set?” John asked as he sat down on the left side of the sofa and put the popcorn between them.

Sherlock gave the popcorn a suspicious glare. “You haven’t over-salted them again, have you?” 

“No.”

“You said that last time too.”

“I haven’t salted them at all this time.”

“A bit extreme, don’t you think?”

“I didn’t want to be lectured about the danger of too much salt again.”

Sherlock smirked and John threw popcorn at him. Sherlock picked it from his hair and ate it without think about it as he started the movie. 

“The screen’s all right?” He asked as he adjusted the sound on the laptop and turned it slightly towards John. 

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” John said, still he reached out and adjusted it a bit. Sherlock rolled his eyes. 

The film wasn’t creepy as much as… well, it had a mood. A very distinct setting; the snow and the darkness and the loneliness…. Okay, it was creepy! Not even 20 minutes in John pulled his feet up on the sofa, just because it was so not creepy. It was just intense to have to focus so hard since he didn’t understand a word they were saying.

“Don’t put your feet in my popcorn,” Sherlock said.

“Technically, it’s my popcorn.”

“Still.”

“For the love of….” John sighed and placed the popcorn on the table instead. Shortly afterwards Sherlock placed his feet on the sofa as well. Because small vampire girls were just absurd and unrealistic. Really.

Without noticing it, their feet slid closer and closer until they finally touched. John reflected over it, and if Sherlock did the same it was impossible to say. Neither of them did anything about it, not until a sudden movement on the screen made John jump. As a reaction, Sherlock kicked him lightly.

“What are you doing?” John asked.

“I’m ticklish.”

“It wasn’t on purpose….”

Sherlock didn’t respond but moved his feet to the table (not next to the popcorn, but both of them had forgotten about those anyway) and then put John’s feet in his lap instead. If that wasn’t enough Sherlock also reached out for the blanket and placed it over his legs – and as a result – over John’s feet.

As the film progressed, Sherlock started to slide two fingers up and down John’s shin. John wasn’t sure the detective was aware he was doing it.

“Now you’re the one tickling,” John told him, and Sherlock actually had to tear his eyes from the screen and look down on what his hands were doing.

“Oh. Sorry.” Sherlock crossed his arms over his chest, but was back at stroking John’s shin again just moments later. John decided to tough it out, but when that didn’t work he retrieved his feet from Sherlock’s lap and was soon leaning against the armrest, almost curled up in a ball. 

Sherlock rearranged the blanket and placed his own feet back on the sofa, but instead of mimicking John’s position he leaned into John. Without thinking John moved his arm and placed it around Sherlock. Why they didn’t just start watching this way was beyond John, because they always ended up like this, often with one or both of them falling asleep before the end.

This time both of them managed to stay awake until the end and John had to forcefully remove Sherlock’s fingers from his shins twice. They waited out the credits before moving. Sherlock reached to close the media player, followed by John rubbing his eyes and they both sat up again.

“Why do you insist on us watching things with subtitles?” John asked with a whining undertone. 

“Why do you insist on us watching anything at all?”

“Tsk, don’t be like that!” John reached for the popcorn. “You know you like cuddling on the sofa. Admit it.”

“Only if you admit liking what we watch.”

John leaned over and wrapped his arm around Sherlock’s neck in a friendly choke and whispered in his ear.

“Never.”

Then he placed some of the popcorn in Sherlock’s mouth and giggled when Sherlock reached for the bowl and emptied it over John’s head. After that it was open war with popcorn flying everywhere! 

Movie nights at 221b Baker Street rarely ended like this, but that’s made it so much more fun.


End file.
